GENGHIS KHAN

(1162?-1227). From the high, windswept Gobi came one of history's most famous warriors. He was a Mongolian
nomad known as Genghis Khan. With his fierce, hard-riding nomad horde, he conquered a huge empire that stretched
through Asia from the Yellow Sea to the Black Sea.
Genghis Khan was born on the Gobi, in a yurt, or felt tent, on a bank of the Onon River in northern Mongolia. His
father, Yesukai, was the chief of several desert tribes and had just slain a foe named Temujin. In triumph Yesukai
named his newborn son Temujin.
Yesukai died when Temujin was about 13 years old. The boy succeeded him, but the fierce, restless nomads would
not obey so young a chieftain. The chief of another tribe proclaimed himself leader of the Mongols and captured
Temujin. Guards forced Temujin into a kang, a wooden yoke that shackled his shoulders and wrists. In the dark he
slowly twisted himself to reach above a guard and smashed the kang down on his head. Then Temujin raced to the
river and escaped by hiding in water up to his chin.
Temujin's bold courage and resourcefulness began to win followers. When he reached manhood, he conquered the Tatars
and added them to his tribes. In 1203 he defeated the Keraits. Seizing their cities of mud and stone, he made Karakorum
his capital.
In 1206 a council of his tribes named him Genghis Khan. It means "greatest of rulers, emperor of all men."
Genghis Khan then put all his Mongolian realm under Yassa, a body of laws he assembled from various tribal codes.
These laws demanded obedience to Genghis Khan, unity of the tribes, and pitiless punishment of wrongdoers. Through
Yassa, Genghis Khan achieved the discipline that welded his wild tribesmen into merciless, successful armies.
On his march of conquest Genghis Khan overran North China from 1208 to 1215. Wheeling westward, his horde conquered
Turkestan. Then his armies engulfed neighboring countries, even part of India. In 1222 the Mongols struck into
Europe at the Don River. After defeating the Russians, they pushed to the Dnepr. Victorious, Genghis Khan returned
eastward. At his death his empire passed to his sons.